1. Field of the Invention
The subject of the present invention relates to session sharing between multiple users.
2. Related Art
Today, users often experience problems when working with complex Web Applications and Web Portals. Although most the Web Applications provide online help, the users often need human support to solve their problems. Today this can be achieved by using telephone support or external remote administration software. Both options have serious limitations. For example, the telephone support is provided by an operator who cannot see what happens on the user's screen.
The external remote administration software is not always available on the Client side and can introduce security vulnerabilities and added complexity.
Today remote assistance—or screen sharing solutions can be divided into two categories:
The first category operates on a lower level and synchronizes the screen graphically. This means that a Client Application observes screen changes and transfers the changed parts of the screen to the remote Client as a bitmap. Programs based on this concept are for example VNC, PC-Anywhere or Windows Remote Desktop.
The other category is web based and is used to synchronize browser windows between several users. The main field of application is customer relationship management and customer support on e-commerce sites. The implementation differs between the different products; most of them use JavaScript to execute commands on the Client's browser window, for example to redirect to another page or to open a chat popup. The JavaScript code reloads a special page in a certain interval. This page contains the actions that should be executed in the browser. Another solution uses a proxy server which rewrites the requested page to replace the links and add JavaScript code to the HTML page. This is needed for the synchronization and to react on change events.
Differences to the Existing Technology
Screen based applications like VNC:
These solutions need an extra application for screen sharing. Therefore the user's computer has to be prepared for using such an application and the user needs to be instructed how to use this external program.
The communication is done with a proprietary network protocol. This conflicts with most firewalls and, thus, the firewall settings need to be modified to make it work properly. Most administrators try to avoid this due to security reasons. Authentication is handled by the application itself; therefore single sign on as in the portal environment is not possible. Since these programs are graphic/screen based, they permit full access to the whole screen of the user. This can be used for remote administration inside one company but is not acceptable for supporting a customer.
Web Based Customer Relationship Management Solutions:
These products focus on communication and provide chat and help functionality. Additionally most of them support page redirects by executing a script command on the Client's browser. The operator can use this feature to send the customer to a certain page in the web site. In general the operator has no access to the user's session; he just can influence it through issuing JavaScript commands. This is only done in one direction (operator to customer) so the operator's browser is not synchronized to the customer's browser.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists for a system that improves the remote assistance or remote collaboration within applications, especially Web Applications.